Long trip, Bad Bearing...
 

Drove from Columbus, OH to Pasadena, MD Sunday morning in a 2006 Chevy Silverado 2500HD with the 6.6 Duramax, 6 speed allison transmission to water test and buy a 2000 Donzi 38ZX. With a Fuel economy tune from crankitupdiesel.com I averaged over 26 mpg. The terrain was flat, had some good crawlers in it but nothing major. Left the house around 7am and got to Pasadena, MD around 3pm. Left the house with sunny skies to hit snow in West Virginia and rain in MD. Water test was a no go due to the poor weather conditions, rains and 20-30mph winds. We stayed at Dover Downs that night and woke up to clear skies the following morning. As we got back to Pasadena, MD we had learned that high tide was around 7am and with the strong winds from the previous day a lot of the water got pushed away making it risky to launch. So with checking everything out mechanically on the trailer I decided to go ahead and wire the money and haul it home. For a 2000 this boat looks brand new, and I don't doubt from the way this thing looks both outside and inside there is one thing wrong with it.

Got on the road about 1pm and was nervous as heck pulling something this big. Around down is one thing but across I70 through the hills I was nervous. We made plenty of stops to fuel up and take a break and averaged just over 12 mpg with a tow tune. The truck did surprisingly well up and down hills with minimal downshifting. The only thing it lacked was the comfort that a dually would give with less sway while towing downhill. Hopefully my 420s will help correct some of that keeping the truck in line. There was one hill in Wheeling, WV on I470 that was the toughest and then the truck had to down shift into 4 and I left it there as it wouldn't maintain a speed in 5th or 6th, it was a big arse hill. The only other issues with towing was when going down hill the truck would downshift into 4th gear to help slow the truck down, there were times it would slow me down to 55mph and even after giving it gas it wouldn't upshift, at least not until we leveled out. 5th gear worked the best for doing around 55-60mpg, it held on the hills going up and down.

We got to Pickerington, OH and dropped off my GF's step dad, around 9pm hung out for awhile left around 10pm to head up to Delaware, OH and while on I270 a wheel bearing decides to take a dump. Pulled over and with the help of forum member I took the tire off strapped up the torsion arm and towed the remainder 30 miles at 45mph. Got home around midnight, boat is sitting about 1500 feet away from my house in a school parking lot, thank god there on spring break, gonna fix the wheel bearing and then take her across the street and get her ready for the summer. It was a long 2 days and I can't wait to get out on the water. This boat definitely turns heads as we had 4 separate occasions where somebody said something to us on the drive home, I'm sure it will be a lot to come on the water.

Here are some pics, sorry they are blurry not sure what is up with my phone.[ATTACH=CONFIG]521253[/ATTACH]

Sorry, can't figure out how to rotate on iMac.

Looks like a nice ride get that sucker in the water and do a sea trial asap. 26mpg is amazing for a truck, and 12 towing is pretty good too. I think the lens on your phone is dirty. Do you have and EGT gauge? wonder how it was up the hills?

Nice write up on your trip. 26 mpg is excellent. Been on similar trips picking up boats but nothing nearly that big. Sweet looking DONZI!

Great looking boat! Congrats!

Are you planning to keep the boat on that trailer?

Sorry to hear about the wheel bearing but that is a great looking boat!

Now about the 26 MPG...:D....trip on mapquest is about 430 miles so you got there is just over 1/2 tank of diesel and then got home on just over one tank? Round trip 860 miles and you bought less than 53 gallons total? I am only curious because I drove the same truck for over 170K miles and got no where near that kind of mileage even empty!

Congrats on the new boat, I'm sure you'll love it! :coolcowboy:


BTW, I need to find one of those Liberty gas stations for a photo op, lol!

Congrats on getting home in one piece (mostly) Artie and I had about as much fun in the snow. Got my rig back at a decent time on sunday, and plopped it in for a sea trial yesterday evening. We went up to Detroit in my 5.9 cummins 5 speed averaging 19 mpg, and then returned loaded averaging 12.9. Any idea what your combined weight was? We stopped at the Cat scales and were 19,700 combined. I would say you should have joined us at Dillon last night, but there were so many logs, stumps, boards, trees, tires etc floating that it was less fun than it could have been. Had it not been essentially my sea trial I would have probably held off for the day.

Awesome new boat!


We have a diesel shop here in central Ohio if you ever want to get rid of Kyle's ancient Crankitup tunes ;)

Congrats on the new boat, Matt. You've earned it! Glad you made it home safe.

Impressive mileage if hand calculated. Everyone knows that running a tune will really throw off the already mileage-happy DIC.

Congrats on the new boat!

Knot is correct. A tuner will affect the DIC figures greatly.

I get about 4-5 MPG less when hand calculated with a tow tune installed. Unloaded, my 2005 Duramax crew cab gets about 21 avg. at 65, which isn't bad for a truck that size. Towing approx 9K it gets 10-12 based on terrain.

OR

You may need to add a bit of Tongue Weight to stop it from Swaying going down hill. Do Know that if it gets out of hand going down hill one of the ways to correct it is to "Punch It". :)...

Congrats on getting her home safe Matt! I'm sure you can't wait for that sea trial!

I`m surprised that trailer didn`t sway all over, those axles are way too far forward = no tongue weight.
Sweet new ride thou.. congrats!

LOL Yea same here with full tune and all the regen crap off the truck.....
LMM D-max I am about 18-21MPG and about 11-15 when driving like a ass hole. That i do 99.9% of the time with Max effort tune, lift pump and built trans with 3 disc low stall TQ Conveter

Congrats on getting the boat home !!

Yes that too!! :-) :-)

Congrats on new boat and safe trip home. We average 4 to 6 mpg hauling a 36 Skater with same setup. best of luck with the sea trial.

Bob

Congrats on your purchase. Have a GREAT SUMMER.

Wondering the same myself... looks like it may be for a 32 / 33? Not seeing much room to slide the bow stop / winch bracket forward either...

I love working the kinks out the first couple trips! When I bought mine I went one trip and had 3 bad tires and one spare tire. I came back and did all of the wheel bearings and tires. Congrats on the boat

Your dock fees at PIB just doubled

Congrats on the new ride!

Nice boat, it was 10 miles from my house and saw it on the lift many a time, it can't have many hours as I never saw it in the water. I know you were looking for awhile and glad it all worked out for you. Enjoy!

One from my home town. Nice boat.

26 mpg! I want whatever drugs your on. If you got 15 I will give you my boat. Your a goofy SOB but I love ya

I didn't calculate the mileage it's just what the truck said it got. I can tell you this, before I put any tune on it I averaged about 17-18 according to the DIC and that is about 75% freeway and 25% in town driving. After the tune it was reading just over 22. I drive conservatily. On the way down I reset and that's what it read when I got to Pasadena. I will calculate it by hand next time and see how much of a difference I get. I did fill up in Pickerington OH and stopped just east of Cumberland MD with less the 1/4 tank of fuel. When I got to Pasadena I had just over a half left. And for some reason it seems like the bottom half of the tank is bigger as it doesn't take long for the needle to drop off the full mark.

As for the trailer I do plan on keeping it on it and do plan on moving up the winch you can see where it looked like someone moved it back. I'm just not sure how much play I have with the stepped hull. The seller said that he called fast load directly and gave them the dimensions of his boat and they built the trailer off that. There wasn't much tongue wait that's for sure the back end of my truck didn't even drop any. I saw another ZX on a trailer a guy hauled back from FL to MI and it did look like it sat farther back then mine. The seller might have moved it back cause he was only using a 1500 to get it to his launch, which was only twice a year and 10 mins from his house.

Here's a few more pics. The first one is from the seller, and there it looks like it was farther up as the bow is over the jack. The last 2 our from my gf. Should I be concerned with the fact there's the only 2 I beams on the trailer, no bunks in the front?

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That trailer is below marginal IMHO.

1) The wood hanging beyond the support of the frame is bad. Allows the wood to sag and the boat to hook.
2) The boat hanging off the back of the wood is also just as bad; for the same reasons.
3) Definitely not enough support with just 2 bunks. It's going to be terrible to load it as well.

Matt...the trailer on my Fountain only had two long bunks...that being the case, you might not have too bad a problem moving the boat forward a bit. You might want to compensate for the steps by adding wood blocks to the bunks...that should ostensibly even out the pressure on the hull and prevent hooking, and give you a better "guide" as to where the boat will go when you put it back on the trailer. I'd say conservatively, you'd want to move that at least a foot forward.

Cool boat! Glad you made it home safely.

Im with sydwayz though. That trailer needs help. The one pic with the boat hanging like 2ft past the bunks, is no good. And the bunks extending that far back, past the frame, is no good either.

My Myco, doesnt have any front bunks in a v shape. Just the big long 4x6 style or whatever, under the rear of the boat, and a couple 2x6 ones next to those, just closer to the keel. The problem i have, with no front bunks, is lining the boat up to pull it out of the water. Its fine with a long dock next to the ramp, and a buddy holding the rear of the boat where it needs to be, while i drive out. However, with no helper, or no dock next to the ramp, its a royal pita. Once on the trailer, it sits just fine, perfect tongue weight and all that. I hate to do it, but i think this summer I might fab up some kind of those plastic guide poles. I would like them to be like a quick disconnect, so I can remove them as soon as the boat is out of the water. Like on some kind of a pin, system. Just pull the pins, and throw the stupid looking poles in the back of the truck when I am done.

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Now this would be cool.

It's not hard to add the front bunks. I did it to my (POS) Rocket trailer several years ago.
All the parts are here:
http://www.championtrailers.com/

I've thought of that. Problem around here is we have a few ramps that are really short. So you can't go to deep with the trailer, and they don't allow "power loading". My buddies with 38 ft boats have had really hard times at those ramps. Trying to drag a 12k lb boat up the front bunk boards with the winch doesn't work well. Everything from snapped straps, bent winch stands, to a buddy getting a winch handle to the eye and a trip to the ER!

Option 1:
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTAwMFgxMD..._id=880000500F






Option 2:
Powerloading = bad.
Hitting the trailer at speed = impressive!

:D

That's a good idea thanks. The carpet needs replaced anyways. I agree with the fact it does need moved up. I had the same problem with my 311. It sat back about 8 inches off the trailer and I had very little tongue weight. When I went over bridges on the freeway it bounced all around. I moved it up 8 inches and it road so much smoother.

Sonic700 never looked so good!!

I played with many different positions on my trailer and it makes a world of difference when you move it to the right position. My trailer has a similar set up as yours and the boat now sits a foot forward from the end of the bunks. When I first got it, the boat sat with an inch or two off the bunks and I had very little tongue weight. Now I have a few hundred pounds and it tows awesome! I know these are different boats but this should give you an idea.
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Just don't 'miss', that winch and associated framework can leave some nice 'beauty marks' on the front of the boat! :D

Hey Tom, I definitely want to move it up so that it all sits on the bunks, the only thing that scares me is the first step will come off the bunk. As soon as I can add to it I'll be moving it forward. I assume launching is cake seeing they need to float off, but without any front bunks I'm sure loading will be a chore. Not sure what I'll do in a pinch if there's no docks say late or early in the year.